Morning journal and courier., 1887-03-31
ALL ABOUT; ,wHIsKEY.
1t is Being Made In the United States
at the Rate of Three Hundred Thou
sand Gallons a Bay.

at the Rate ofThree Hundred Thou
sand Gallons n Bay.
From the Chicago Herald.l
The distilleries of the country are very
active just now. There are over five hun
dred of them now running, nearly six hun
dred and fifty in fact, and they are turning
out intoxicAnts at the rate of over three hun
dred thousand gallons aday They are using ov
er seventy Eve thousand bushels of corn day
and over seven thousand gallons of molassss
daily. This is the busy time of the year
with the distillers. During this month and
next there will be running between six hun
dred and seven hundred distiler1es in the
country. Six months from now there will
be no more than couple OF hundred of them
running, though there are one thousand two
| hundred of them in the country. These six
| hundred and fifty now at work are the legi
| innate ones, that is to say, those who pay
| taxes and report to the government the bus
| iuess they do. Besides that number there
are a lot of them running illegit1mately,
moonshining, The fund provided for the
prevention of illicit distilling by the last
| Congress has nearly given out, and the dis
tillers know it. Your average moon
sinner is a pretty shrewd fellow, and he
manages in some way to keep posted on the
| workings OF the department. The money
4
breaking up their stills ran low several weeks
| ago, and the department was unable to re-
spond to the demands of the revenue officers
| for more deputies. The distillers caught or
| to the situation, and the result is that moon
sinners are beginning to be very active in
Kentucky, Tennessee, northern Alabama,
Georgia, and North Carolina
Georgia is making more whiskey to-day
/ than any other State. Her one hundred ant
fifty distilleries now running are turning ou
one hundred thousand gallons of bourbon
| whiskey daily. Six months from now ther,
will not be half this number running, anG
they will only be turning out perhaps twent,
| thousand gallons day. North Carolina ha
the largest number of distilleriss, the mum.
Der now running in that State being some
thing over two hundred. Yet they do no
turn out over two thousand gallons day
an average of less than ten gallons apiece
On the other hand Illinois, with only eighteen
distilleries, turns out eighty thousand gallon
day, aud does that the year round. Him
ois makes more whiskey than any othe
State in tina Union. She turns out nearl
twenty five million gallons year, while Ken
lucky makes but fifteen million gallons. Th
| Illinois distilleries run about the same al
the year round, while Kentucky fellows shu
down in the summer. 1t would be NOR
nearly correct to say that Illinois make
more spirits than any other State, fo
really very little of the article that i
turned out from distilleries of the State
whiskey.
Nearly all that the big distilleries nov
make is known to the trade as "Cologn
| spirits" This article is about the same a
alcohol, except that it is even more absolut
| in its purity than alcohol. When these BIZ
distilleries that make this Cologne spirit
begin running off the products of the mas
tubs, they run the first part alcohol. I
| has slight tinge of color, and is not abso
lutte in its purity as that which follows late
on. The operator watches the stream o
liquor as it comes from the tub, and as b
| sees it become absolutely pure turns
into another tank, and it is termed Cologne
| spirits, so pure that it is absolutely colorlesi
and odorless. 1t in concentrated drunken
| ness and when it is wanted to be TRANSFORMED
into whiskey it is reduced to about one-hal1
it's strength with water, some burnt sugar
put in to give it color, some glucose aooeo
to make it smooth and oily, like lid whlskey
and it passes for the real article. Many
| sunposed connoisseur has smacked his lips
ever alleged twenty-year-old whlskey, AND
pronounced it the finest in the country, when
the article he was complimenting was Col
opn. snirits onlv q month old, favored with
ofroose and burnt sugar On the whole,
however. the whiskey Of to-day is not, the
revenue people say. as hurtful as that turned
I ont by the whiskey makers twenty years ago
The chemical changes which were then per.
formed by adangerous acid are now produced
bv other means, and some OF the pols'
ons which DESTROYED the stomschs of whiskey
drinkers then are not to be found in the CUP